Vima Church Audio Podcast

In Luke 3, John the Baptist preaches what might be the clearest Gospel message found in the new testament. No fluff, just truth. There are three major components to this declaration: 1. We are all sinners. 2. There is a penalty for our sin. 3. We have a Savior.  John calls on the people to do two things in response to this, repent and be baptized. John is known as the one who came from the wildern...

If you want to have the best year ever, have the best year spiritually. "And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man." Luke 2:52 ESV If we want to increase our lives physically, emotionally, relationally, financially, and more - we start by increasing spiritually - by finding favor with God. Let's flip the script this year, start by making the spiritua...

Pastor Jon preached a powerful Christmas message from a mostly unused portion of scripture, the genealogy of Jesus. Before Jesus ever preached a message, the story of His arrival and bloodline of His family spoke of His grace and purpose. He came as a Savior to our sins, a Messiah to our mess, a Hope to our hopelessness, and a light to our darkness.

Our worship is the evidence of a true experience with the real Jesus. When Mary visited Elizabeth, their babies responded to each other in the womb. Mary then goes on to sing, to worship, to proclaim the goodness of God.  Our songs, our anthems, our declarations, our generosity, our serving - all are evidence of our life changing encounter with Christ.

The holiday season is not all hugs and kisses. This time of year often brings a lot of stress, anxiety, and loneliness to some. But as we look at the Christmas story reminds us that we can find "Hope in our Stress".

Gratitude is not a gut response to our circumstances but an attitude developed by discipline and perspective. As believers, even in the midst of hardship, we are grateful people because we choose to see what He has done and what He promises to do.  We develop this attitude by remembering what's God has done, by rejoicing in who He is, and by returning back what is His.

Every year in November, Pastor Jon shares the next years vision and gives each of us an opportunity to join in partnership to see God do the miraculous in our church, city, and world.  We are called to live a "more than most" kind of life.  We LOVE more than most.  We SERVE more than most. We GIVE more than most.  Would you consider giving above your tithe to see the vision God has given...

Pastor Jon taught on three types of giving we find Biblically: obedient, sacrificial, and purposed. Understanding each is important to following the way of Jesus. In fact, Jesus talks more about money and possessions then peace, hope, and joy.

In week one of our new series "Open Handed", Pastor Jon brought us three stories of three people who had personal encounters with Jesus. In each story we see "how" each character handled what God had put in their hands.

In this final message from the series, "The Book of Daniel", Pastor Jon covers Daniel 7-12. All previous chapters were history and prophecy of past, but the final six chapters are some history but mostly prophecy of what lied ahead of Daniel in the future.  In Daniel 7, we see a dream of four beasts and the Ancient of Days who comes and judges the beasts. This is both prophetic to the hi...

This week we had a special guest, our friend Pastor Jacob Howell from Merge Church in Van Buren, Arkansas. He picked up where we left off with Daniel chapter 6 and preached a powerful message on how to develop lion's den kind of faith.

In Daniel chapter 5, we get introduced to a different king, King Belshazzar. On the brink of the country being sieged, he decides to throw a debaucherous, blasphemous party. This results in God showing up in dramatic fashion. This is where we get the phrase “writing on the wall”. Daniel is once again called upon to read and interpret. As we take a deeper look at this story, we see so many similari...

As Pastor Jon unpacked Daniel chapter 4, we see yet again an incredible example of humility from Daniel. The king is perplexed by a dream, Daniel interprets it, but does so with grace and truth.

When culture is shifting, do you? How do we as believers stand in defiance to culture while at the same time being kind and loving? In the first three chapters of Daniel we see two iconic stories of young men stand in defiance to culture on the principle of their faith.  We stand in defiance to culture when we bow in surrender to God.

Pastor Jon shared the vision of how the mission of God is working through Vima Church through our church values. It's important that what we center ourselves on as a church lines up with who Christ has called the church to be.  Vima Church Values Jesus : our message God's Word : our authority Family : our future Passion : our pursuit People : our purpose Generosity : our privilege City :...

As believers, we are called to be messengers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This means, how we live and what we speak matters. It's not just the job of the "preacher" to declare the good news but each of ours as followers of the way. But how do we do that? Pastor Jon gave a simple teaching on what it looks like to share our story. 1. Who was I before Christ? 2. What did Jesus do bef...

The mission of God is continual work in us and through us. Through God's word we see four things that God wants to do in each of us and that is our mission here at Vima. We exist to see people KNOW God, GROW in freedom, DISCOVER their purpose, and GO make a difference.

Mis­sio Dei is a Latin the­o­log­i­cal term that can be trans­lated as “Mis­sion of God”. There is a work that God is doing on this earth, it’s a mission that He has been on since the beginning and we believe the church and every believer get to participate in an important way.  Pastor Jon goes from Genesis through Revelation looking at the mission God through the narrative of the Word of God.

Pastor Shawn brought a powerful word on how Jesus sees and treats "outsiders". If you've ever felt alone, rejected, or like you don't fit in - then this is a word for you.  We have a Gospel mandate to go out and bring in those who are far from God and not accepted by societal standards. There is no one outside the love of God.

What if while we were waiting on God, He was waiting on us? When we don't know what to do - open His word and obey! Obedience to His word is a key to unlocking His blessing.  Pastor Shannon O'dell shared a great message on the importance of our movement towards God in all areas of our life : prayer, worship, relationships, serving, and giving.

Ever find yourself between a rock and hard place? Felt like you had some momentum and then "wham"?! The children of Israel had just been set free and then here comes Pharaoh. They were stuck between an army of assassins and the Red Sea.  We find in this story that it's important who we see, who we fear, and who we believe if we hope to be free!

God gives us so many chances to acknowledge Him as Lord. We see this not just in our own lives but even in Exodus with the Egyptians. The plagues weren't just punishment for sin or justice for the years of slavery but also their opportunity to know Him as the one true God. The tenth plague shows us that the wrath of God and the love of God can coexist. It's only through the sacrifice of...

In the Egyptian culture, the people worshiped many gods. These gods represented the things that made them more powerful, more successful, more wealthy than all other people groups of their day.  As we look at this story, we see God take a direct attack on these false gods. But before we think we don't have idols, statues, images that we worship - we have to consider what it is they were actua...

What God wants to do in our world, He wants to do in us first. As we look at the story of Moses, we see God's divine plan to rescue the Israelites. Before He can do that He has to set Moses free from his "stinkin thinkin" so he can walk in his God given calling.  Many of us have accepted the grace of God for salvation but still struggle with insecurity, fear, feelings of inadequacy,...

We wrapped up our Sizzlin Summer in the Psalms series with our friend Pastor Chad Overton. He brought a powerful and timely word from Psalm 133. There is a blessing that follows God's people, in God's place, walking in God's purpose!